The real whistleblower

Sherron Watkins has become known as the Enron whistleblower, a moniker that helped get her nominated as Time magazine’s co-Person of the Year in 2002. In fairness, Watkins never sought that title, and she never acted like a whistleblower. That’s not to take away from the courage she showed in questioning Ken Lay.

Still, the title is a better fit for Joanne Cortez. Cortez was the “senior specialist” who oversaw Lay’s credit line. Concerned that he was using the credit line to mask stock sales, Cortez began to track Lay’s activity on a separate spreadsheet, putting all the borrowings and stock sales into one timeline.

Cortez noticed that Enron’s proxy statement, filed in March 2001, said Lay’s $4 million credit line had been repaid in full. That didn’t make it clear that Lay was repeatedly borrowing and repaying with stock, she said.

In late 2001, as her concerns mounted, Cortez called an attorney, who in turn contacted the FBI and Cortez turned her spreadsheet over to the authorities.

3 Responses

Finally someone who gets that Sherron Watkins did not act as a whistleblower! The constant act of putting this woman on a pedastol is sickening! The fact that she stands to gain if Skilling and Lay are found guilty and has gained for being mislabled as a whistleblower is enough to make anyone ill.

I have been bothered by Sherron Watkins since it surfaced that she “blew the whistle” on this sordid matter. I am not alluding to her bringing this matter to Lay’s attention; I am bothered that at the same time she also sold some stock and profited by the same. The only way this chick could rise in the estimation of all that does not reek is for her to (a) pay back her ill-gotten gains (less taxes or cap gains) to whatever fund that has been set up to help the employees; or (b) give it to charity. Has that idea ever been mentioned in Houston circles? If not, from one chick to another, I would like to propose that idea to Ms. Watkins.